Curriculum Recommendations for Inclusive Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

In 1989, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) published "The Knowledge Base for the Beginner Teacher". More than a decade later, teachers, teacher educators and scholars from across the country came together to revise and refine the curriculum in teacher education. This article focuses on the recommendations of the Committee on Teacher Education (CTE) which wrote three books describing the basic foundational knowledge that all American teachers--including special education teachers--should know before they graduated from their pre-service programs. In this paper, the authors articulate the CTE's recommendations and then provide additional special education content recommendations for general education teachers working in highly diverse inclusive classrooms. (Contains 1 table.)